Facebook in January began testing a "Lite" version for those on slow 2G networks in emerging markets, and now it looks like the app is ready for primetime.
The social network on Thursday announced it has begun rolling out its Facebook Lite Android app, which consumes less data and works well across all network conditions, in countries across Asia. Facebook also plans to release the app in parts of Latin America, Africa, and Europe "over the coming weeks."
At this point, more than a billion people around the world access Facebook on their mobile device, the company said. The new app works on all Android phones and is intended for use in areas with slow or unstable connections.
"In many areas, networks can be slow and not able to support all the functionality found in Facebook for Android," Zuckerberg and Co. said in a Newsroom post. "Facebook Lite was built for these situations, giving people a reliable Facebook experience when bandwidth is at a minimum."
The app is less than 1MB, so it's super-fast to install and quick to load.
It doesn't give you all the functionality of the full-blown Facebook app, but the new Lite version lets you check out your News Feed to see what friends are up to, share your own updates and photos, and get notifications when friends like and comment on your posts.
The new app is just the latest of Facebook's efforts to make its service more accessible to those in emerging markets. The company has been experimenting with using drones, satellites, and lasers to spread Internet access to unconnected areas of the world. It has also been slowly rolling out its Internet.org app, which provides free access to basic Web services (including Facebook, of course), though that exclusivity has sparked backlash from net neutrality advocates.